• Use your personal device to connect to LinkNYC’s super fast, free Wi-Fi
• Access city services, maps and directions from the tablet
• Make free phone calls to anywhere in the U.S. using the Vonage app on the tablet or the tactile keypad and microphone. Plug in your personal headphones for more privacy.
• Use the dedicated red 911 button in the event of an emergency
• Charge your device in a power-only USB port
• Enjoy more room on the sidewalk with Link’s sleek, ADA-compliant design by Antenna
• View public service announcements and more relevant advertising on two 55” HD displays

The concentration of Links on 2nd between seventh and St. Marks is crazy. I live on the block and there are people (mainly crusties) camped out charging their phones every night - often drunk/high, sometimes abusive and aggressive. I've spoken with Councilwoman Mendez's office and was told that the contract with the city just states that they have to be more than 50feet apart (the two at the southeast corner of the block are 70 feet apart - I measured).

I understand the value of public wifi and free calling, but why should we have USB charging ports available 24/7? Just turn them on in an emergency, or keep them on during reasonable business hours.

Lastly, do we really need more advertising cluttering up our streets? Is the city being properly compensated for having handed this private enterprise incredibly valuable billboard space in exchange for a little bit of wifi and free calls??

The reason we don't need pay phones anymore is the same reason we don't need these monstrosities. According to a recent Dept. of Consumer Affairs study 96% of city residents have cell phones. That number will only increase. If you need to use the internet, step into a library, it's more comfortable than standing on the street. The obelisks might be useful for emergency phone calls but does that justify the space they are occupying? Did someone look at the future and see a need for these things? Am I missing something?

these boxes are designed to take your data, sell it and use it eventually against you. The city socialism experiment x Google are designing this to make you dumb using the guise of smart, fast and fun. No thanks

These things exist for no other reason to collect data and yield advertising. In the case of a blackout, for which we've had our fair share of, these things are bricks. When I had this discussion with LinkNYC via Twitter, they quickly changed the subject to a piece of sponsored content in Next or some gay publication about the great resource these are to the homeless LGBTQ community living on the streets who don't have access to resources and the internet. They chose this topic because they were lurking on my Twitter account and concluded that, because I'm gay, like their monoliths, this piece of content should be yielded to me and they waited for me to Oprah seal clap for them for their great humanitarian work. Helping the homeless LGBTQ community, or any of our communities, was not their intention with this project. It's a manufactured talking point and a minimal at best biproduct of their main goal which is to farm people data and yield ads. Ironically the ads they yield are mostly for alcohol and substance abuse is just one of the problems that result in people living on the streets. On the plus side, I applaud LinkNYC for making their recent decision to stop airing porn on every street corner.

It's really sad when the collective experience of 30 or so regular bloggers to this site can figure out the draw backs of the kiosks that our elected pols ignore and/or don't understand... except theyre told to get behind it or their pork gets cut off.

cmarrtyy, Group think, a lack of diversity in teams, particularly age, and operating in a vacuum are some of the technology industry's biggest flaws in my opinion. Also the lack of understanding that what works in one city doesn't necessarily mean it I'll work in another. And come on, not a single person thought to create filters so people couldn't watch porn? It makes me wonder what else these people didn't think about. Like what type of vulnerabilities LinkNYC kiosks have when it comes to hacking and deploying malware. Something to think about considering how saturated the streets of NYC are becoming with these things. There should be an independent security audit done on these things.

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